Question
I want to publish the results of the CA State Fair and Exposition Commercial Wine Competition on my web. CA State Fair and Exposition is commonly known as Cal Expo.
The results are approximately 2000 records containing the winery name, wine receiving an award, award(s), gallons produced, retail price, bottle size. All of this data was submitted by the wineries when entering the competition.
Cal Expo has published this data already by sending it to the wineries, media and other agencies. They typically will post this on their website in the form of a PDF file and in a magazine they produce. However, the wine industry has asked for an online system that is searchable, something my company has developed and provides free of charge.
The data is actually in my possession due to my relationship with Cal Expo. I run the computer system for the wine competition. I made a formal request for the data with no response so far. Their verbal position is that the data belongs to them and I don’t have a right to use it unless they provide me written approval.
Although it might seem unclear as to why they wouldn’t want me to publish the data, in particular since the program is to promote the CA wine industry including companies like mine, the reasons appear to be concern over competition with their wine magazine publication. Although they do not generate much revenue from the sale of the magazine, they receive revenue from the advertisements and sponsorships of the magazine. It appears that they are concerned that advertisement revenue would be threatened by the potential for advertisement to shift to our online system.
My belief is this is public data and they can’t prevent me from using it, for personal or commercial reasons. Since I have the data, there should be no cost for reproducing the data.
It appears that my right to use the data is covered under the California Records Act. However, I’m attempting to ensure that there isn’t a reason why this would be proprietary or otherwise wouldn’t be accessible to me, or anyone else for that matter.
Answer
As a general matter, information that is generated by a government agency and released to the public should be fair game for the public to use. Some of these issues are being litigated by CFAC in a suit seeking access to certain basemap information from the County of Santa Clara. Information related to this litigation might be of some interest to you: http://www.cfac.org/content/litigation/santaclara.php.
These situations can be complicated, however, and because we cannot provide specific legal advice or representation through this service, we cannot give you any definitive answer as to whether you could be subject to liability for publishing or otherwise using the records.
Asked & Answered posts should not be relied on as legal advice, and FAC makes no guarantees about their completeness or accuracy. All posts carry a date of publication that readers should take note of in assessing their usefulness, given that laws and interpretations of them may change over time. Posts predating Jan. 1, 2023, that discuss the California Public Records Act may contain statute numbers no longer in use. Please see this page for a table showing how the California Public Records Act has been renumbered.